lf down on the clean pebbly shore of the grotto,
and drew forth Mr. Sewell's letter.

CHAPTER XXVI

DOLORES

Mr. Sewell's letter ran as follows:--

MY DEAR YOUNG FRIEND,--It has always been my intention when you arrived
at years of maturity to acquaint you with some circumstances which have
given me reason to conjecture your true parentage, and to let you know
what steps I have taken to satisfy my own mind in relation to these
conjectures. In order to do this, it will be necessary for me to go back
to the earlier years of my life, and give you the history of some
incidents which are known to none of my most intimate friends. I trust I
may rely on your honor that they will ever remain as secrets with you.

I graduated from Harvard University in ----. At the time I was suffering
somewhat from an affection of the lungs, which occasioned great alarm to
my mother, many of whose family had died of consumption. In order to
allay her uneasiness, and also for the purpose of raising funds for the
pursuit of my professional studies, I accepted a position as tutor in
the family of a wealthy gentleman at St. Augustine, in Florida.

I cannot do justice to myself,--to the motives which actuated me in the
events which took place in this family, without speaking with the most
undisguised freedom of the character of all the parties with whom I was
connected.

Don Jose Mendoza was a Spanish gentleman of large property, who had
emigrated from the Spanish West Indies to Florida, bringing with him an
only daughter, who had been left an orphan by the death of her mother
at a very early age. He brought to this country a large number of
slaves;--and shortly after his arrival, married an American lady: a
widow with three children. By her he had four other children. And thus
it will appear that the family was made up of such a variety of elements
as only the most judicious care could harmonize. But the character of
the father and mother was such that judicious care was a thing not to be
expected of either.

Don Jose was extremely ignorant and proud, and had lived a life of the
grossest dissipation. Habits of absolute authority in the midst of a
community of a very low moral standard had produced in him all the worst
vices of despots. He was cruel, overbearing, and dreadfully passionate.
His wife was a woman who had pretensions to beauty, and at times could
make herself agreeable, and even fascinating, but she was possessed of a